The Chronicle

Dear Parents

This will be the last full edition of the Chronicle this school year but there will be further communications from school throughout the summer to keep you updated on important details about school and returning in the Michaelmas term.

I would like to begin with a thank you and I know that I mention those who have helped with various events and activities throughout the school week, but last week’s school production was an outstanding success.  I wish I was able to list every single person involved who contributed to the preparations and actual performance but that would fill the rest of this page and more.  However, my sincere gratitude is extended to each and everyone of you that made the event such an enjoyable one, especially Mrs Paphitis, Mrs Olden and Mrs Wildey.  Mrs Carol Williams, commented that it is the first show she has been able to watch in her 18 years of teaching at Crackley Hall and she could not stop smiling throughout.  I am never fail to be totally in awe of the talents of your children; even the very youngest that take to the stage and give everything they have to perform with their school friends. If you were unable to attend, I would certainly recommend watching a Spoonful of Naughty on DVD!

On Monday, voting took place for next year’s Head Boy and Head Girl and I am delighted to report that there was an excellent field from which to choose.  The new Head Boy and Girl will be announced at next week’s Prize Giving evening.

As you will have noticed in our entrance foyer, the winter sports teams photographs are now available to order and the School Office will contact you again when the summer team photographs and Junior 6 photographs are available to view.

On Tuesday, Nursery Graduation took place in the Hall.  It was hoped to hold the ceremony on the top lawn but the British weather proved typically unseasonably this week and the Hall provided shelter for all.  It was a lovely occasion nonetheless and it was super to see so many parents and family members supporting.  The Nursery staff were presented with a lovely framed poster with all the leavers’ fingerprints making up the leaves of a tree.

There was much excitement on Wednesday when all children were able to spend the morning with their new class and teacher.  We welcomed new children who will be joining Crackley Hall in September and they settled in very quickly, enjoying their new environment and playing with their new friends.  It may seem like a long wait now until the start of the new term but I assure you that the summer holidays will pass quicker than you would possibly like and during that time school will be preparing for your return.

During assembly this morning we said some fond farewells to several staff members, Carol Williams, Pete Harris, Matthew Duigan, Lottie Jones and Patricia George and they in turn surprised the school with a presentation of a star named after all the Crackley Hall children who are all….stars!  We will say a little more next week.

Congratulations to all of the stars of the week including: all of Nursery, Mahnoor, Sara, Isaac, Andrew, all of Junior 2, Amelia, Freddie, Joseph, Amy, Nancy, J5R, Hattie, Joe and Reece.

I am pleased to announce that Blythe, Esme and Arthur are our gymnasts for this week and the RE Book of the Week has been awarded to Jasper, Sam, Amelia, Helayna, Lily, Max, Henry W, Henry V and Harry T for their amazing drama work on parables. 

Thankfully, the weather has improved significantly and the KS2 sports day has been much cause of excitement and celebration.  Thank you to Mrs Vaughan for co-ordinating the schedule which, Mr Hardwick and Mr Rawson for preparing the field, Mr Sansum and his team for catering and the PTA for providing their services serving refreshments.  I hope you all had a wonderful day supporting the houses.

Next week will be a short week as term will finish on Wednesday.  Before the final day, we will be celebrating the Prize Givings on Tuesday, Leavers Mass on Monday and Leavers Assembly on Wednesday.  I am sure that there will be some tears shed, but I hope that there will be many smiles too together with lasting memories of special times for both teachers and children.  Information regarding the announcement of next year’s pupil leaders will be circulated on Monday.

At last the South African cricketers seem to be having a decent match and should beat Sri Lanka – this will help England greatly but England will still need to win two tough games to progress through to the semi-finals.  The England women’s football team are playing really well and, hopefully, will progress though to the final this week.

God bless,

Robert Duigan

Please find attached PDF copies of the Michaelmas Term lunch choices. 

Please return your completed forms to school by Wednesday 26 June.

Thank you

Letter

Menu week 1

Menu week 2

Menu week 3

Could parents who wish to order uniforms for J2 children that are due to 'move up' in September please fill in the uniform order form as soon as possible and hand it into the school office.

Thank you 

The school shop will be open until 4.30pm on Wednesday 3 July 2019. 

If you are looking for additional or replacement items of uniform ready for September, please can you order in plenty of time to allow delivery to school prior to this date.

From Monday 8 July until Monday 2 September, the school shop will be open for new starters and will be by appointment only.

Please find attached the termly curriculum sheet for your child's year group:

Reception

Junior 1

Junior 2

Junior 3

Junior 4

Junior 5

Junior 6

Our Stars of the Week this week are:

Crackley Hall’s U9 and U11 Rounders Teams travelled to Stafford Prep on Thursday 20 June to play in the Independent Schools Association (ISA) Midlands Rounders Tournament. 

In the U9s tournament, Crackley Hall set the pace as they faced four teams in succession in a round robin competition. Batting brilliantly and sharp on defence, they remained unbeaten throughout.  They faced Stafford Prep (win), Old Vicarage (win), Bedstone (win) and finally the Crescent (draw).  A super set of results that put them at the top of the table and earned them a well-deserved gold medal!

The U11 tournament was played in pools, with the winners of each pool then playing off for the final positions.  That meant the pressure was on from the start.

Crackley began impressively and stayed determined.  First up were the hosts Stafford Prep and the girls batted slickly and quickly went ahead, claiming a good win 11-3 ½.  Next up were Bedstone, another good team.  This was a much closer match but Crackley just edged it to finish with a win 5 ½ to 4 ½.  That put Crackley Hall at the top of the pool and through to the playoff finals.

In the finals they faced tougher opponents, the matches were more challenging but the girls played superbly showing skill, determination and great teamwork.  First they played Old Vicarage and won 5 ½ to 3 ½.  Next were Birchfield, they were an awesome team showing precision in fielding and thunderous batting and deserved their win 11 to 5 ½.  Crackley Hall were delighted to come away with the silver medal.

Describing the day, PE Teacher, Mrs Kat Vaughan commented, “What you want from a competition like this is for the teams to realise their potential and that’s what our girls did today.  They played brilliantly and deserved their medals and as always we were exceptionally proud of their conduct throughout the day.”

Playing in the teams were:

For the U9s: Anabel Davis, Rosa Davis, Scarlett Hammond (Vice-Capt), Maria Howe, Adelaide Hunter (Capt), Millie Lammas, Isabel Reddish, Issey Cleary, Jasmine Staveley and Elle Weir

For the U11s: Isla Berger, Martha Harris, Caitlin Horan, Francesca Kelly, Annamaria Kordas, Madeline Lambeth, Amisha Modi (Vice-Capt), Isabella Osborne and Hannah Wildey (Capt)

The Summer holiday will soon be upon us.

Please find below a list of recommended summer holiday adventures, learning activities and tasks you can undertake with your child.

Whilst the holiday is time to rest and relax, and all these suggestions are optional, it is essential that all children, across the school, continue to read so we recommend they register for the summer reading challenge (more information in the whole school document attached).

To explore our recommended activities, please click on the links below, as relevant to your year group:

WHOLE SCHOOL – Awesome Adventures for Summer 2019 – activities from Mrs T Hill (Assistant Head, Academic)

Summer holiday 2019 WHOLE SCHOOL.pdf

Moving to Junior 1, Junior 2, Junior 3 – Phonics review

Summer holiday 2019 new J1 J2 J3 PHONICS.pdf

Moving to Junior 3 – suggestions from Mrs Van Zyl and Mr Stedeford (Junior 3 class teachers)

Summer holiday 2019 new J3 FINAL.pdf

Moving to Junior 4 – suggestions from Mrs Jackson-Mayne and Mrs Wildey (Junior 4 class teachers)

Summer holiday 2019 new J4 FINAL.pdf

Moving to Junior 5 – suggestions from Mrs Lammas and Mrs Roberts (Junior 5 class teachers)

Summer holiday 2019 new J5 FINAL.pdf

Moving to Junior 6 – these children have a range of examination preparation activities from Mrs Horan and Mrs Vaughan (Junior 6 class teachers). These will be sent home in an envelope on Monday. Given the impending entrance assessments, these activities are very highly recommended.

This year’s spectacular summer production took place on Friday 21 June at Leamington’s Royal Spa Centre.  A ‘Spoonful Of Naughty’ featured two much loved, musical classics; Mary Poppins and Matilda The Musical.  Crackley’s children confidently took to the stage bringing the audience to their feet as they performed their numbers with passion and pizzazz.

The show opened with the story of Mary Poppins; faced with a new nanny, the Banks children are pleasantly surprised by the arrival of the magical Mary Poppins, together they embark on a series of amazing adventures, with Mary’s friend Bert, that help them all learn what is important in life.  Full of plenty of familiar singalong songs, including A Spoonful of Sugar, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Feed The Birds, Chim Chim Cher-ee and Let’s Go Fly A Kite, colourful costumes and snappy dance routines, Reception, Juniors 1, 2 and 4 and the principals from Junior 6 delivered an opening act that was a real crowd pleaser.

Matilda The Musical came next, Roald Dahl’s much loved story providing a roller coaster of a second half, delighting the audience with engaging characters and energetic toe tapping songs.  The story of a genius of a girl and her wonderful teacher pitched against her awful parents and monster of a headteacher, the odious Miss Trunchbull, with ultimately right overcoming wrong.  The cast delighted the audience with more brightly coloured costumes and clever routines delivered in style by Junior 3 and Junior 5 with the lead roles played by members of Junior 6.  Everyone enjoyed the modern day classics that included Naughty, Bruce, When I Grow Up, The Smell of Rebellion and the amazing finale of Revolting Children.

All through the show, the crowd greeted each performance with applause and when the final number was complete, the appreciative audience went wild, clapping and cheering. Headmaster, Mr Duigan looked on proudly, Mrs Wildey, Mrs Olden and Mrs Paphitiss were all delighted that after all the endless, tireless rehearsing the show was a triumphant success.

Of course no show like this could happen without the help of many, many people. Our thanks go to all of the staff involved in whatever way, all the parents for providing costumes and props and most of all to the children for working so hard at their numbers and lines.

Crackley Hall is celebrating after another successful performance in the Independent Schools Association’s (ISA) National Track and Field Athletics Championships.  After great success at the Regional Qualifier, Crackley’s athletes returned to the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham for the National Championships on Wednesday 19 June.

Wilf Grindal made it three in a row when he won the Silver Medal in the Year 6 Cricket Ball Throw, having taken the Bronze Medal in the same event in Years 5 and 4, in 2018 and 2017 respectively.

There were plenty of good placings for Crackley’s other athletes too.

Junior 3, Elle Weir came 4th in the 600m in the Year 4 race.  Despite being a year young, Elle led all the way and was just run out of the medals in the last few metres.  Elle improved on her Midlands qualifying time by a superb four seconds; there was only a second between the top four.

Year 6 Freddie Knott jumped adeptly and finished 7th in High Jump, Year 4 Maxwell Kiely ran determinedly to finish in 5th in 60m sprint and 12th in 600m and the Year 6 Boys Relay Team (Freddie Knott, Oscar Glover, Alistair Darnell and Bobby Chapman) were placed 6th.

Congratulations to all of our athletes and huge thanks to the parents who took the children to the event in what was a very busy week at Crackley Hall.

Pastures new beckon for our Junior 6 Minnie Vinnie members, so it seemed a most opportune moment for Mrs Simmonds (Chaplaincy Assistant) and the children to get together and celebrate their time together.

This group of fantastic, dedicated and hard working students have made a sustained positive impact on the School's Christian and charitable mission. We thank you for your service and wish you all the best of luck in all you turn your mind to.

Wednesday saw our corridors and classrooms welcome their new class cohorts for next year. All year groups from Reception through to Junior 5 sampled pastures new, with many teachers transferring their talents too!

We at the Chronicle wish everyone but especially our current Junior 6, who are leaving us this term, all the very best. We know that all of you have incredible talents: just listen to your teachers, try your hardest and you will be rewarded with great things.

Last weekend Aryan won the Quorn Family Cup, winning all of his seven matches against other England clubs. A great day was made sweeter still, as he was presented his winners medal by non other than the women's world number three player Karolina Pliskova.

Such obvious talent as Aryan's then led to an invite from the Warwickshire LTA to compete at the Nature Valley Cup at Edgbaston earlier this week. Here he got to play next to Venus Williams and the Women's World Number 1 player Naomi Osaka. Aryan competed as part of a team challenge, where he met eight rival clubs at the tournament. A closely fought match found him initially two nil down in the semi-final during which his back tooth fell out. Happily, he managed to put that to one side and came back three games to two to secure his place in the boys final against Edgbaston Priory Club. Aryan then won the boys' final five games to love; however the concurrent girls' final was lost, meaning a well earned silver medal would be added to his growing trophy cabinet.

We at the Chronicle have been closely following Aryan's progress over the years and we are keen to report more success for Crackley's tennis ace as he hopefully will be serving up more victories at the AEGON final at Edgbaston this Saturday.

Please click on 'View Gallery' to scroll through a few photos from this week's events.

RE Book of the Week has been awarded to Jasper, Sam, Amelia, Helayna, Lily, Max, Henry W, Henry V and Harry T for their amazing drama work on parables. 

.

We are pleased to announce that Blythe, Esme and Arthur (J1) are our gymnasts for this week.

The success of last year's inaugural Nursery Graduation meant that the whole of this June's calendar was built around this upcoming event. This year's ‘Graduation Ceremony’ took place on Tuesday afternoon, with the younger nursery children, the nursery staff, Mrs Glen-Roots (Assistant Head), Mr Cottrill (Deputy Head) and Mr Duigan (Headmaster) joining with the pre-school parents to watch. The children made their own invitations for their parents and have been practising hard over the last couple of weeks for their musical performance, which was made all the more polished with the accompaniment and encouragement from parents, guardians and staff.

It was a wonderful occasion, with plenty of opportunities to make new memories and remember good times. The children sang their hearts out; the first action ‘wiggle’ song made everyone smile, although participation was slightly less enthusiastic than expected!! The second ‘mirror’ song showed off their talents and made hearts melt and the last song, ‘Good luck, goodbye’, made us all wipe away a tear. However, tea and cake, with a chance for a chat brought all the smiles back. We will all be sorry to see this group move on, but we wave goodbye with a smile, and plenty of good wishes for exciting times in Reception. 

Have a lovely Summer everyone!

Newsletter

The PTA have signed up for a loyalty scheme with Naturally Kids, a new shoe shop in Leamington. It’s a great scheme that benefits both the PTA and parents. Please see the attached leaflet for further details and keep an eye out for loyalty cards appearing in your child’s book bag.

We hope you all have a lovely and relaxing summer, but for those of you who like to look ahead here are the dates for some activities we have planned for next school year:

Wednesday 18 September - PTA Ordinary Meeting

Thursday 19 September - Networking Event

Saturday 14 September - Welcome Back To School Silent Disco

Saturday 30 November - PTA Christmas Fayre

The Crackley Hall summer event is one of the highlights in the PTA calendar.

Last year's Family Fun Day was a great success, however we have decided we would like to reach out to the whole school community over the summer to ask for ideas from you all on the type of event you would like us to host next year. It could be another family fun day, a themed day or some kind of performance with a picnic. We are open to all ideas and suggestions and want the day to be an event that everyone can look forward to.

The event date will be Saturday 16 May and we really look forward to hearing the ideas you come up with over the summer, once these have been received we hope to make a decision mid September!

Please could you forward any suggestions to Melissa (mfox1401@gmail.com) and we look forward to hearing from you.

We would also like to say a massive thank you to all the PTA volunteers who have given up their time this year and especially to those who have reached the end of their time at Crackley. We wish them all the very best and thank them for all their help over the years. It does mean that we will be looking for new members next year so if you would like to know anything or wish to get more involved then please get in touch via the email above - and do come along to our first meeting in September if you can.

Many thanks,
Crackley Hall PTA

Holly (J3H) has lost her named blazer

Sara (J1G) has lost her named blazer

Xzavier (J6H) has lost his named fleece

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Parents, please ensure that all school uniform and sports kits are named.

Could you please regularly check all uniform and sports kits at home – if any of it is not yours, please return it to the School Office as soon as possible.

Interested in working for the Princethorpe Foundation?  We currently have the following vacancies:

• After School Manager - Crescent School
• After School Assistant - Crackley Hall School

Full details of the roles and how to apply for them are available on the Foundation's website:

https://www.theprincethorpefoundation.co.uk/join-us